1. Field
The following description relates to a power converter. The following description also relates to a power converter for reducing standby power consumption by consuming a driving current that is as small as possible when not actively operating in order to reduce overall power consumption.
2. Description of Related Art
A power converter denotes a device that converts and then supplies power for driving various electronic devices, such as a computer or a TV. Speaking broadly, devices such as a transformer, a rotary converter, a mercury rectifier, and other similar devices are types of power converters. However, recently, the power converter refers to a semiconductor power converter using semiconductor hardware to act as a power converter.
For example, a power converter may convert alternating current into direct current by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a power converter by PWM control.
The power converter illustrated in FIG. 1, a power converter by PWM control applied for Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, is structured to achieve high speed while minimizing power consumption.
To this end, the power converter includes, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a bridge rectifier 10 that rectifies AC into DC, a Power Factor Correction (PFC) 20 reducing a ripple of input power, a PWM controller 30 converting power, a main board 40 supplied with the converted power, and common Light-Emitting Diode (LED) driver 50 and LCD module 60.
The power converter configured in this way has a power-down mode, also referred to as a disable mode that consumes a minimized driving current when the main circuit does not operate.
Such a power converter uses a large-capacity capacitor to supply appropriate power to the main circuit, and such a capacitor completely discharges the charged voltage of the capacitor in order to enter an enable state from the disable mode. Hence, the response time is long and excessive stress on the device is generated in a switching device for controlling such a large-capacity capacitor.